The premise is this: an elementary public school teacher decided to start eating the school lunch every day and posting pictures of the food and her reactions to a blog. She started in January. She keeps herself anonymous (as far as I know, I haven’t read the whole blog) because she’s afraid she could lose her job for doing this.

I cannot stop reading this thing. It is like watching a train wreck. You know, you want to turn away but you just can’t. It’s hideous.

Most of the lunches are down right pitiful. They don’t even give these kids lettuce shreds and a tomato slice for the burgers. And sometimes a fruit icee is served to count toward the fruit/veggie requirements. A popsicle? Really?

When they do give the kids actual fresh fruit it is always whole. Whole pears, whole apples, whole oranges. How many six-year olds can peel an orange by himself?

But even more shocking: they only give these kids 20 minutes for lunch. This includes waiting in line time and clean-up time. TWENTY MINUTES???

And yet, the most jaw-dropping thing I learned is this (And my eyes still feel big over this little nugget): There is NO recess at this school. No recess. An elementary school. These poor children get gym once a week, 20 minute break for lunch and NO RECESS??!!! This is a tragedy.

I know this isn’t the state of things in all schools, but I think it’s pretty common based on the number of comments she gets from people across the nation whose schools have similar situations. Shocking. Appalling.

As soon as I can pick my jaw up off the floor I’m going to start thinking of something to do. Even if it’s as small as writing my congressmen. I don’t know, this thing just jolted me. Maybe because she also writes that the reality for many of her students (and I think in plenty of other schools across the country) the food they eat in school is their best meal of the day.

What do y’all think here? Are you shocked like me?

Over the years it has come to my attention that my babies mommas keep needing diaper money. Nowadays diapers aint cheap with the economy and all that. With [this brand of diaper] my child support costs have gone down significantly. I cannot stress the importance of keeping your baby mommas happy and so by providing them with a quality product that saves money, as well as good for the environment and whatnot, you end up in a win-win situation.

My favorite part is the fact the “baby mommas” is plural. And yet this guy still took the time to write a cloth diaper review.

1. We are OK. There was a large earthquake in the south of Taiwan today. Here in Taipei we felt some tremors, but nothing major.

Okay…these are the kind of diapers I drool over. Yes, it’s true…sad but true…I dream about the diapers I wish I could buy. If only I had that kind of cash lying around to invest in my kids’ bums. *sigh*

Well here’s hoping I can win a couple of these Rolls Royces of the cloth diapering world in this giveaway. And if you’re the kind of person who has dreams of cloth diapers, go ahead and check it out too.

While we’re on the subject, I also dream about lovely wool diaper covers like these and these.

I had not intentionally forgotten to bring those shirts back with me when I went in to get checked, partly because I liked the shirts and partly because I was angry with the hospital for taking my baby away from me to put him under UV lights as a precautionary measure for his slight jaundice. I certainly did not go so far as to change Abram out of one of those shirts before taking him with me to one of the check-ups!

That would be…stealing. No! Not me!

My neighbor and good friend (En Zhen, who was also mentioned in this post) recently let us borrow her rice cooker. After using it and experiencing its rice cooking perfection I did not decide to just “forget” to return it until they ask for it back. (She did, after all, say that they don’t use it very often when she dropped it off.) I have not used it to cook rice nearly every other day for the past two weeks! I also did not inform my  husband of our “position” on the rice cooker so he wouldn’t take it upon himself to give it back.

That would also be…stealing. Stealing? No! Not me!

Welcome to another edition of Not me! Monday here on Far East Street. If you want to see what everyone else has not been doing lately, head right on over to MckMama’s blog. And let me know if you’ve shared!

Not me! Monday is a fun blog carnival created by MckMama at www.mycharmingkids.net. You can head over there to find out what she and everyone else (really…everyone else) have not been doing this week. That is, after you read what I did not do this week…

I am always right on top of my laundry, so there would never be occasion for Ellie to find one sock (pink, with red hearts) on the floor and put it on all by herself. Not in my house!

But if, on Sunday morning, Ellie did just happen to find one sock (pink, with red hearts) and put it on all by herself, I certainly would never allow her to wear only one sock to Sunday School. Especially because we go to Chinese church, which means you take your shoes off in Sunday School, therefore it would be glaringly obvious to everyone there that Ellie was wearing only one sock (pink, with red hearts).

Of course, if that did happen on Sunday, that same sock was absolutely not still on the floor Monday morning for Ellie to find again. And I definitely would never ever allow my daughter to strip off all her clothes–except for the sock–and go around the apartment completely naked except for that one sock (pink, with read hearts).

That would just be indecent.

Not me!

One day last week I did make Ellie a blanket fort. But when I realized it was snack time I did not just let her eat cookies inside the fort (1) hoping to buy some time to start dinner, and (2) because all the chairs were being used for the fort and I didn’t want to clean up something messy (but healthy), like the watermelon we had cut up in our fridge. I would never place my convenience over the nutritional needs of my daughter.

Not me!

And what about Abram? Well, I was holding him when Ellie invited me to come into her “home”. Of course, she has such a loving spirit…so Abram certainly did not have to be left lying just outside the fort. And he was absolutely not lying directly on the hard floor, only halfway on the wadded up blanket that just happened to be within my reach! I would have at the very least spread out a nice blanket for him to lie on.

If he was placed on the hard floor, it was for the briefest of moments while I visited Ellie’s “home”. I certainly did not continue to leave him there while I got things ready for dinner. And then washed the dishes.

No. Not me!

I hope you had as much fun reading all the things that did not happen here this past week. And if you have written your own Not Me! post, leave me a comment so I can make sure to read it.

There is a lot of content already on the blog starting from back in January! If you want, you can start reading the archives here. If you don’t feel like going back to read all the archives, at least make sure not to miss the posts about Ellie’s first birthday and our Chinese New Year celebration.

Explore around and tell us what you think.